EDUCATIONAL POLICY COMMITTEE
INTERIM REPORT ON HONORS CRITERIA AT THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT
AUSTIN

On behalf of the Educational Policy Committee, Co-Chairs
Archie Holmes (associate professor, electrical and computer engineering)
and Paul Woodruff (professor, philosophy) have presented the following
interim report for discussion by the Faculty Council at its meeting
on January 26, 2004.

<signed>

Sue Alexander Greninger, Secretary
The Faculty Council

Posted on the Faculty
Council Web site on January 26, 2004. Paper copies are available
on request from the Office of the General Faculty, FAC 22, F9500.

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EDUCATIONAL POLICY COMMITTEE
INTERIM REPORT ON HONORS CRITERIA AT THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT
AUSTIN

The committee was asked by Vice-Provost Lucia Gilbert
to consider catalog changes for honors criteria used by the University.
As a point of reference, in the spring 2003 semester, there were
5270 College Scholars and 487 Distinguished College Scholars recognized
on Honors Day.

Current Status

There are three different types of honors that the Educational
Policy Committee has been asked to review. These are College Scholars,
University Honors, and Distinguished College Scholars.

College Scholars
On Honors Day each spring, the University designates outstanding
students as College Scholars. To be designated a College Scholar,
a student must meet the following requirements:

The student must be registered as an undergraduate for at
least nine semester hours of coursework, unless he or she lacks
fewer than nine hours to complete degree requirements. Students
who hold an undergraduate degree are not eligible.

The student must have been registered at the University at
least once during the preceding calendar year.

The student must have completed at least thirty semester
hours of coursework at the University, excluding credit by examination,
and at least sixty semester hours of college coursework, including
transferred work and credit by examination.

The student must have a University grade point average of
at least 3.50.

University Honors
Each semester, undergraduates who complete a full course load
and earn outstanding grades are recognized by inclusion on the
University Honors list. Each time a student is included on the
list, his or her official record also shows the award of University
Honors for that semester. The list is compiled at the end of the
fall and spring semesters but not at the end of the summer session.
To be included, a student must earn at least forty-five grade
points and a grade point average of at least 3.50 on courses completed
in residence and must have no incomplete grades (symbol X).

Distinguished College Scholars The catalog does not define criteria for the Distinguished
College Scholars. Current practice is that students who meet the
criteria for College Scholars and have a University grade point
average of 4.0 are given this distinction

Current List of Recommendations

To date the committee has agreed to recommend the following changes:

1.

1. As a minimum, all honors should require that students
be enrolled as full time students (i.e., twelve hours).

2.

2. The GPA requirement for College Scholars should be changed
to in-residence GPA

3.

3. The provost office should work with the various colleges
to ensure that the criteria for College Honors are uniform
for the entire campus and in line with the criteria for University
Honors

4.

4. Criteria for Distinguished College Scholars should be
defined in the Catalog; the committee will consider recommending
a 3.9 GPA for this category.

Outstanding Issues

The committee is looking into the effects on the number of students
who receive honors if (a) the minimum number of hours is increased
and/or (b) the in-residence GPA is increased. The effects of a
change in the number of hours is shown below:

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Honor

Current Status

Student is required
to be in 12 hours

Student is required
to be in 12 hours

College Scholars

5270

5039 (- 4.4%)

2784 (- 47.2%)

Distinguished College Scholars

487

472 (- 3.1%)

249 (- 48.9%)

The Educational Policy Committee plans to finish its recommendations
in January and present their final recommendations to the Faculty
Council, for endorsement, at the February meeting.